Passcode hack 'won't give access to iPhone data'

Karen Haslam |
Feb. 27, 2013

A report claims that the researchers who announced the latest passcode lock/data access flaw used flawed measures.

Apple's issued a few updates for iOS recently, unfortunately they haven't been without their share of flaws, and no sooner had Apple issued iOS 6.1.2 another security vulnerability emerged on the iPhone.

However, a report claims that the researchers who announced the flaw's "measures were flawed".

The latest vulnerability is said to make it possible for a malicious user to access the iPhone's data. Researcher Benjamin Kunx Mejri, the founder of Vulnerability Lab, found that by making an adroit combination of actions and button presses at certain times - accessing the emergency call feature, hanging up immediately, then pressing power and home buttons after several seconds had elapsed - he could get through the passcode lock and access the user's phone app, look through contacts and listen to voicemails.

A number of sites, including Macworld, feature a video that claims to show this data access. However, The Next Web denies that the hack allows access to an iPhone's file system.

TNW claims that the hack doesn't allows access to anything: "Not pictures, not contacts and certainly not the file system." According to that site, the researchers testing measures were flawed.

TNW are certain of this because, it claims that the user file system is encrypted and un-viewable on a computer if a iPhone had a passcode enabled. TNW says that the current flaw "does not change that behavior". It might appear that the lock has been bypassed, but the file system is still encrypted.

The latest exploit appears to take advantage of a vulnerability that emerged earlier this month. That security vulnerability allows a user to bypass the lock screen, even if a password has been set. Apple has said that they are working on a fix for that bug.

The iOS 6.1.2 update fixed a problem with the Exchange calendar that was leading to drained batteries due to increased network activity. Some expected that the passcode flaw would be addressed, while Apple has yet to fix that flaw, it appears that the update patches the passcode hole so that instead of access to contacts, the user now see only a blank screen and keypad.

Most popular iOS update

According to Chitika, Apple's iOS 6.1.2 is the most popular iOS to date, based on data from the iOS device ad impressions that Chitika sees on its ad network.

Within five days 34.9% of iOS web traffic was from the latest version of iOS, reports Apple Insider.